by Dr. Ali Shehata
Covering the Hair. Is it Just for Muslim Women?
The modest dress code of the Muslim woman, which includes the hair covering, but is not limited to that.
Few things today are quite as attention-grabbing in the Western media as the issue of Muslim women’s dress code. The hijaab has a different meaning depending on who you ask though. In the West, women dressed in hijaab evoke both anger and sympathy, as some see them as having no voices, no rights and no place outside the home. It has been called oppressive and degrading, and open calls have been made to “liberate women” from these restrictive garments. There is one glaring problem with these impassioned cries though—no one really cared to ask Muslim women what they thought about the whole matter. Before actually exploring this very important question, a brief review of the views of the three religions regarding veiling—all three of which either currently require or have historically required the veil—will again be made.
Beginning again with Judaism, one quickly discovers the requirement for covering the hair of the woman, which continues till today among the Orthodox sects. In Judaism though, a number of factors appear to be at play when attempting to understand the reasoning behind the traditional requirement that women cover their hair. The Midrash of the Talmud, on one hand, unreservedly understands Eve's beauty as having contributed to her temptation of Adam. As a result, she was then required to modestly cover her hair, as it was considered so sexually alluring that men would be simply incapable to resist. Again from the Midrash:
Why does a woman cover her head and a man not cover his head? A parable. To what may this be compared? To a woman who disgraced herself and because she disgraced herself, she is ashamed in the presence of people. In the same way Eve disgraced herself and caused her daughters to cover their heads. Bronner, L.L. (1994). From Eve to Esther: Rabbinic Reconstructs of Biblical Women. Westminster: John Knox Press.
The Midrash continues in this regards, explaining that women are required to cover their heads as they walk before the bier at funeral processions in order to atone for Eve having brought death into the world by her sin. This is also related to the ten curses placed on women that was mentioned previously.
Yet, from another perspective the act of covering the hair in Judaism has also been viewed, as we shall also see in Islam, as a badge of honor and distinction. In the Jewish case, it is because it is a requirement only for women who are, or have been, married. A woman who has never been married is not required by most Jewish authorities to cover her hair. The Talmud [Kesuvos 72a] regards the source for this requirement as being Numbers 5:18 which deals with the laws of a sotah (a suspected adulteress) and states,
The priest shall stand the woman before God and uncover her hair...
Rabbi Shlomo Yitchaki of the 11th century provides two explanations for the Talmud's conclusion requiring veiling. Firstly, she is punished for exposing her hair to her lover which demonstrates that the act of uncovering the hair before another man (other than family) is prohibited, and, secondly, from the fact that we expose her hair we see that under typical conditions, a Jewish woman's hair should be covered.
Jewish men, married or not, must cover their heads in virtually all Jewish sects. This requirement, however, does not only stem from ideas of modesty or temptation, but as a symbol of the “Fear of Heaven”. This concept comes from the Talmud, where the mother of Rabbi Nachman bar Yitzchak would not allow him to go with his head uncovered saying, "Cover your head in order that you should have the fear of heaven upon you." Krauss, S. (1945). The Jewish Rite of Covering the Head. Hebrew Union College Annual. Vol. 19, pp. 121-168. Retrieved from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23503676?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
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